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Deluge brings wave of complaints as cities paralyzed

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People in Beijing do not need a great leap of imagination to forecast chaos after heavy rain in the capital. They've been through this before.

A passenger makes an unconventional exit from a stalled car to help push it off the road on June 18 after torrential rain hit Wuhan, Hubei province. [Xinhua]

"Last time it rained I was caught in traffic for five hours in the evening rush and was starving. But this time I am prepared," taxi driver Wang Hujun, 46, said as he sat for more than an hour on Thursday behind the wheel of his stationary car at Anhuaqiao flyover on the Third Ring Road.

Wang, a cabbie for more than 10 years, said he stocked his taxi with pot noodles and hot water after he heard the storm was on its way. "Beijing has always been like this when it rains for more than two hours, but the situation is getting worse as more cars and stupid drivers are on the road.

"I am actually quite enjoying the newly added attractions of Beijing, such as 'waterfalls and sea views'," he said. "Next time I will drive a speedboat when the rain comes."

Thursday's rain was the heaviest for a single storm in 10 years, said Wang Yi, spokesman for the Beijing anti-flood headquarters. In some parts of the capital the rain was the heaviest for a century, he said. Shijingshan district recorded the most rainfall, 182 millimeters.

The rushing waters dislodged a manhole cover in Shijingshan, and about 5 pm two men in their 20s were sucked into the drainage system. One fell as he tried to push his stalled car out of the flood; the other fell as he tried to save his colleague.

Both men were migrant workers at a home decoration company. Their bodies were found Saturday.

For most people, however, the storm spewed mere inconvenience and irritation.

Hu Jinjing had just picked up her 11-year-old daughter up from school near Dawang Road near the Central Business District when the rain came down. "I couldn't believe how the water level could rise that fast," she said. She saw the floodwaters trap many cars, but hers was only stuck in the traffic.

Daughter Wu Jie sat quietly in the back seat playing games on an iPad. "I love it when it rains because I can play hours of games and have lots of snacks on the road."

The usual 45-minute ride home took mother and daughter three hours on Thursday. "Beijingers are so used to it now, and I am really not sure that's a good thing or bad thing," Hu said.

"How can Beijing be called an international city if a bit of rain can bring the whole city to a standstill?"

Systems outgrown

Wang Huizhen, a retired professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and an expert on sanitary systems, said a major reason for the city's problem on Thursday was that the storm-drain system lags urbanization.

"The system worked well when it was first designed, but the underground conduits have been used for decades now. From today's point of view, the standards were set at too low a level."

As urbanization speeds up, she said, both the population and building have soared, and concrete- and asphalt-surfaced roads have reduced the percentage of permeable surfaces in urban areas. "In Beijing, the areas under the grade-splitting bridges for road traffic usually suffer the most when heavy rain hits the city," she said.

"Insufficient rainwater collecting is a historical problem, especially in big cities around the country." One solution, she said, would be to gradually upgrade the underground conduits, although that "is not a job done in a day".

She also suggested the city, with its persistent severe water shortage, encourage the collection of water for the city's underground "water bank" through such methods as using permeable bricks and building more low-relief greenbelts.

She was not enamored of the stunning photos of cascades in some subway entrances. Water draining into a subway station "is very dangerous".

Beijing is not standing alone in its urban water problems. Major cities including Wuhan in Hubei province, Nanchang in Jiangxi province and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province have been bothered by abrupt summer rainstorms.

On June 18, Wuhan was hit by the heaviest rain in 12 years, with an average of 196 mm across the provincial capital. Caidian district recorded 203 mm by 5 pm.

The rainfall exceeded the standard drainage capacity of Wuhan, so water stood in most major streets. The water level at 82 crossroads reached 50 millimeters. It exceeded 2 meters on Xinhuaxia Road in Hankou, trapping several people on their way home.

Altogether, 1,200 people were sent to drain the flooded areas. As of 3 pm the next day, 19.48 million cubic meters of water had been drained using firefighters' pumps.

A third significant rainstorm this summer hit Wuhan on Friday, and dozens of crossroads were flooded. The urban drainage system has been blamed for the accumulated water on the street that caused great inconvenience to residents.

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